Whoa to those, such as myself, dumb enough to choose to live in this hell hole, this unsustainable abomination in the desert, where it must be 115 most of the year, it is never cold or cool, people roast in January, and we apparently get all of out water from the over tapped Colorado. Whoa, to us!Do you sense my sarcasm?

When ever I hear people say or write that sort of thing, you know they don't seem to know much about the place. The comments are enlightening. Sure, water use is way over what is sustainable but so is it in Florida, where it rains 50 inches a year! Anyone heard anything about California lately? Say, do you think the author would slam most cities in California, southern California especially, as would be fitting? Never forget that LA appropriated an entire river for it's sustainable use.

You don't have to travel much in Arizona to realize that we use massive amounts of water, sure, but agriculture, dairy and chickens and their feed use a disproportionately large amount of that. Golf courses, lawns, wasted water on landscaping, add to that exported crops, cotton, and other things, and there is a lot more water available for urban growth, no matter how hellish someone not from here must think Phoenix happens to be.

Similar to any argument these days, why can’t people stick to facts. It may be a valid argument but you undermine the whole thing when you support it with hyperbole instead of just sticking to the facts that should be more than enough to get your point across.

last summer 50 flights were grounded at Phoenix airport because the heat – which hit 47C (116F) – made the air too thin to take off safely.

False. Some flights were grounded because the type of aircraft involved did not have the necessary calculations in their manuals for temperatures above 116. The air was neither too hot nor “too thin” for aircraft to take off safely. As hundreds of others did and do, at and above 116!

@Jim_H
I hear similar arguments like this article, quite often. Since I care way too much about such things, I thought I would offer some additional facts:

You are mostly correct in your breakdown of water use in AZ. Statewide in 2016, about 74% of the total water demand came from agriculture. Municipal use was about 21%, and industrial was about 5% (http://www.arizonawaterfacts.com/water-your-facts). As for the point about golf courses, over 60% of golf course water demand in central AZ is met by reclaimed water. Central Arizona cities recycle and reuse more than 90% of their municipal water.

Addressing the arguments made by the article: Phoenix may not be sustainable, but we're attempting to make the most of our current situation. It's not all bad.

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Arizona ought to look to Israel for water reclamation ideas. Israel leads the world, reclaiming 90% of their wastewater, followed by Spain at 20%. Israel has so much surplus water it exports it to neighboring countries, mainly to Jordan.

There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.

Greater Phoenix is good at recycling waste water, but most of it is used for cooling the Palo Verde nuclear power plant

I'm not sure if this true or not, but I tend to doubt this statement as well, knowing how much reclaimed water is used for golf courses and other irrigation.

Water is a big concern, but it is being looked at, constantly. This article fails to address that since the 80's per capita residential use of water has been greatly reduced in Phoenix and in Tucson. ADEQ is also on the cusp of allowing reclaimed water to be used as a source water for potable water after further treatment. This is pretty progressive, but the point of this article seems to be making the opposite claim about Phoenix and AZ in general, not to mention the sensationalism it's tinged with.

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There seems to be a perennial attack on the desert cites as doomed because it gets hot here, and we don't have rivers running everywhere. If I take issue with Phoenix, it isn't the summer heat which I enjoy or the lack of most surface water, it's the winter air pollution and traffic. No one ever seems to write a scathing article about that!

@Jim_H
Most city people don't think twice about traffic and air pollution, because they have always lived with those. In fact, I don't think the average person even notices the smog. They think it is normal "haze."

Air pollution from the copper smelters in Nacozari and Cananea, Sonora, used to really affect Southern Arizona. I wonder if that is still the case?

There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.

A couple things about the misleading article. First, the AZ Dept of Water Resources (ADWR) will not allow valley cities to further develop without a "100 year assured water supply". Cities must prove they can supply water for the next 100 years. There is water available to support growth. Just very expensive.
Most of the valley's reclaimed water does not go to Palo Verde for cooling. Palo Verde receives ~30 million gallons a day (MGD) from 91st Avenue Phoenix treatment plant. The 91st Ave plant produces 140 mgd. Chandler alone produces 28 mgd of reclaimed water.

This summer's heat just won't end, and it will be 111 degrees, or very near on Saturday, in the only city in Arizona that matter: Tolleson. No, Phoenix, Phoenix. That said, I thought I would revisit a topic that keeps getting published online, Phoenix is the perennial city to bash when it gets hot. Because!

The city of Phoenix has no master plan to deal with heat,

No master plan!?! No Master plan!? Someone get a national socialist candidate for City Hall on the ballot, we need MASTER PLAN!

Global warming is killing us all! Your baby is going to burn, in HELL!

OK, that wasn't in the article, but since the homeless in Phoenix literally fry on sidewalks like intoxicated eggs, and 33 year old Indians in India die in street fights over thimbles of water, like some mad Max scene out of a Bollywood knock-off, clearly we're next!

That said, this summer without a pool, I will admit I am finding Phoenix to be less than desirable for living in. Perhaps, one might say.......unlivable. Gasp! Then I was told I could poach a pool yesterday, and all was well. 90 minutes in cool refreshing chlorinated water under the shade of a large, mature oak planted in a backyard that has probably 40+ years of flood irrigation. It was lovely.

But, yeah, without pool access, and with the only outlet for activity outside of a house, office, or mall, being oven roasting parks or hikes, the city does slowly start to feel unlivable to normal people, I would think. I does to me. It doesn't even have to be 110+ for that, though. Even a more modest 105 can get old.

Still, unlivable? There is a difference between boring, and actually being no longer livable habitat.